Though more than a year overdue (526 days to be precise), ‘The Final Strike’ is completed!!!

I’ve only skimmed through the adventure quickly to eliminate any major bugs, so expect many minor bugs and balancing issues that need to be addressed.

Requires version 1.7 or higher. Note: For those using version 1.8a1, CSCs and Point Juventia and all missions currently still use the old Centurion graphics.

Note: Also requires TheFinalStrikeResources1.zip and TheFinalStrikeResources2.zip. The links are avaiable on Xelerus.

Extract all the files, then copy all the files from TheFinalStrikeResources1 and TheFinalStrikeResources2. Go to the Resources folder in TheFinalStrike and paste them there.

Overview

Taking place in the year 2427 (8 years after beginning your journey in Eridani), you decide to return to Human Space after only leaving the Quarantine Zone for 2 years.

A lot has changed in the time you were away. The Commonwealth Fleet discovered a new semi-linear chain branching off HD 44594, that is controlled by the Ares. The Fleet sent all their CSCs into the area, and even built a new stronghold: Point Juventia. Only a couple of months later, the Ares launched the latest edition to their fleet: the Cosmicwinds fighter auton.

Explore the 25 star systems and help the Fleet in their campaign by completing the 22 new and unique CSC and 5 Point Juventia missions, in preparation for the final strike.

Sidequests

‘The Final Strike’ features 4 sidequests (several of which can be a bit hard to find). Reap the rewards to help you on your arduous journey.

Overwrites

Click below for the full list of overwrites.

Spoiler: Overwrites

Special thanks to:

AssumedPseudonym
JohnBWatson
NMS
PM
relanat
shanejfilomena
Xephyr

(anyone else I've forgotten...)

and of course George Moromisato for creating this wonderful game which we play.

.

Attachments

An Aquila fighting a swarm of Cosmicwinds autons

Cosmicwinds.png (800.97 KiB) Viewed 4975 times

PointJuventiaMission.png (570.18 KiB) Viewed 4975 times

Shadowspace.png (1.17 MiB) Viewed 4975 times

Last edited by AdmiralZo on Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

P.S: Two years spent in rest and galaxy and finally defeat Oracus. I didn't expect pilgrim would return to Human Space. All that I thought from pilgrim is he would died in the space after defeating Oracus and gone to an eternity realm. Haha...

I haven't gotten very far, but so far it's the best mod I've played - quality and content are on par with George's, and I haven't gotten any major problems. Here are the glitches/issues I've encountered:

The training mission doesn't end correctly, and can be started before Point Juno gives you the order to go there with no changes to the dialogue at Juno. Targets will respawn indefinitely, and the ships you're training with will keep shooting them, but the mission will credit you with completion after killing a few. - this appears to be a different squadron. They're just training on their own.

There are items in the Europa wreck's weapons vault. This might be a reference to the fact that the player nearly always leaves something there, but I thought I should mention it in case that's not supposed to happen.

The Ranx dialogue has some strange errors. They refer to the player as 'human' despite being human themselves, for example.

The Ranx alliance code isn't thorough - they still fire on Corporate ships and stations, and may also shoot at civilian Commonwealth ships.

There's a strange white flash at points during the mission where you hunt down a Syndikat lord. Not sure what the cause of them is, but I figured I'd mention them in case they weren't supposed to be happening.

The weaponized Polar - class used by the Fleet in a mission chain doesn't navigate nebula well. I lost track of it, assumed it got destroyed, fought with the refinery it was targeting, and then, just as I moved to finish it off, the prodigal freighter returned and wiped it out. After spending almost a full minute laughing at my screen, I figured I'd report the issue.

In the system before the one with the refinery, I encountered an 'Ares Communications station'. There weren't any friendly stations that I could get a mission from, so I left it alone in case it was needed for something. Should I kill it? - these appear to be generic stations that show up randomly, just like Ares shipyards, communes, mines, refineries, factories, and outposts.

Second attempt:

Ares miners don't react to the destruction of their home mine. They should probably try to gate.

The mission to bug a Rogue Fleet meeting at an abandoned Ares Commune doesn't close out correctly. All listeners should be purged once the mission is completed - otherwise the player can get a 'he hears us!' message hours after he finishes the mission. - this appears to result in a completely blank screen upon docking at Point Juventia.

I can't find the next stargates in either of the chains. One of the systems is called Cursa. It's probably something I'd find if I looked a bit harder, but right now I'm not sure if they're there, so I didn't want to spend time looking for things that don't exist.

I got this error message multiple times while going on CSC missions. My first mission was to destroy cargo crates around a refinery(I destroyed it, then took out the remaining crates). My second mission was to protect a Fleet settlement next to the CSC from Kobol warlords, which was repeated several times.

A mission to protect a settlement from an Ares capital ship that was "terrorizing" it ended in failure when it was destroyed immediately after starting the mission(I was across the system from it). Not sure if this isn't just bad luck and a Worldship, but it's worth a look at the script.

Three starting ship has most advanced equipments, but Outer Realms doesn't provide enough for player. I dislike to use Mag launcher in Outer Realm, even High Flux grenade is pretty useless to me. It's hard to find Rassiermesser or at least NAMI launcher in this game.

About mission, it's pretty good, but also very hard. Fleet mission is adequated, but side quest is like... "Rather burning in the hell!". But their mechanics is great. Training outpost animation is very interesting; also flashbang and debris trap (slowing FPS to me) from BM boss.

I just has completed Celendinne mission (Killing BM boss; he's way too fast), but stuck in defending station. It's hard, and station seems has less hitpoints. I have tried using Plasma Cannon and Mine launcher, but defeated with underestimated T55. Those deadly suicide bomber 'magically' destroy station before I even realize what they use for. Surely I need my sentinels.

By the way, it's a great adventure mods. A year waiting for this mods is much worthy. I could rate ten... no! a billion stars of the galaxy.

There are items in the Europa wreck's weapons vault. This might be a reference to the fact that the player nearly always leaves something there, but I thought I should mention it in case that's not supposed to happen.

Yes, there is supposed to be some items remaining, but there may be too much at the moment.

There's a strange white flash at points during the mission where you hunt down a Syndikat lord. Not sure what the cause of them is, but I figured I'd mention them in case they weren't supposed to be happening.

It's one of the tactics used by the Syndikat lord, to disorientate the player, while he tries to flee.

The weaponized Polar - class used by the Fleet in a mission chain doesn't navigate nebula well. I lost track of it, assumed it got destroyed, fought with the refinery it was targeting, and then, just as I moved to finish it off, the prodigal freighter returned and wiped it out. After spending almost a full minute laughing at my screen, I figured I'd report the issue.

Yes, they move extremely slowly through nebula, and it's very frustrating. But I'm not quite sure how to fix it.

In the system before the one with the refinery, I encountered an 'Ares Communications station'. There weren't any friendly stations that I could get a mission from, so I left it alone in case it was needed for something. Should I kill it? - these appear to be generic stations that show up randomly, just like Ares shipyards, communes, mines, refineries, factories, and outposts.

They also coordinate random attacks on enemy stations in the system, but otherwise serve no other purpose than to be destroyed.

The mission to bug a Rogue Fleet meeting at an abandoned Ares Commune doesn't close out correctly. All listeners should be purged once the mission is completed - otherwise the player can get a 'he hears us!' message hours after he finishes the mission. - this appears to result in a completely blank screen upon docking at Point Juventia.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here, but I recall getting a blank screen once. The player fails the mission if he ventures too close to the Centurions, or does not drop the trackers on the Ares Commune.

I can't find the next stargates in either of the chains. One of the systems is called Cursa. It's probably something I'd find if I looked a bit harder, but right now I'm not sure if they're there, so I didn't want to spend time looking for things that don't exist.

There should be more systems after Cursa. There are 6 systems after Point Juventia in the chain with Cursa.

I got this error message multiple times while going on CSC missions. My first mission was to destroy cargo crates around a refinery(I destroyed it, then took out the remaining crates). My second mission was to protect a Fleet settlement next to the CSC from Kobol warlords, which was repeated several times.

The CSC missions are very sensitive and seem to break easily. I need to test them more thoroughly.

Three starting ship has most advanced equipments, but Outer Realms doesn't provide enough for player. I dislike to use Mag launcher in Outer Realm, even High Flux grenade is pretty useless to me. It's hard to find Rassiermesser or at least NAMI launcher in this game.

I just has completed Celendinne mission (Killing BM boss; he's way too fast), but stuck in defending station. It's hard, and station seems has less hitpoints. I have tried using Plasma Cannon and Mine launcher, but defeated with underestimated T55. Those deadly suicide bomber 'magically' destroy station before I even realize what they use for. Surely I need my sentinels.

Should I reduce the amount of Molotoks that attack the station?

I think I also forgot to remove the "I'm here!" message that the Syndikat lord sends the player - it was meant only for testing purposes. But will he be too hard to find otherwise??

Fuel and money isn't that a problem, I can sell whatever weapon I found to Teraton. It is all the items, somewhat is rare to find and mostly useless as the player has higher one.

Which launcher would you prefer?

I think each playership should has a different launcher. I always use Sapphire, and I thought it's not match with Mag, I prefer at least a Rasiermesser missile with Gotha-10. Leave EI500 with Mag Launcher, as they has omni weapon and perfect as a bomber. For fast Wolfen, use Makayev with Black Strelka.

Should I reduce the amount of Molotoks that attack the station?

Not necessary, but I think it more better.

I think I also forgot to remove the "I'm here!" message that the Syndikat lord sends the player - it was meant only for testing purposes. But will he be too hard to find otherwise??

Use marker instead.
Idea: Use three ship, two ship will disguise player.

Yes, they move extremely slowly through nebula, and it's very frustrating. But I'm not quite sure how to fix it.

Increasing the engine power would work here, I think.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here, but I recall getting a blank screen once. The player fails the mission if he ventures too close to the Centurions, or does not drop the trackers on the Ares Commune.

The issue is that you aren't purging listeners after mission completion. I can place the trackers and pass the mission, but then get the 'he sees us, leave!' message much later, after I've already completed the next mission or two. I haven't looked at the code, but making sure the check for proximity never runs after the mission is completed should fix this.

There should be more systems after Cursa. There are 6 systems after Point Juventia in the chain with Cursa.

Alright, I'll have a go at finding them.

Should I reduce the amount of Molotoks that attack the station?

That mission is a bit too hard - a nerf wouldn't hurt.
More bugs:

The capturable Ares outpost sometimes doesn't turn green. The freighters, thankfully, do turn green once they leave for the carrier.

When it does turn green, it spawns friendly Ares encounters.

The Aquila's reactor can get damaged, and it won't ever turn back to normal. This might be on George's end.

A carrier close to the start of the new path asked for escort to an earlier system. It worked fine for a few systems(though the slow speed made things somewhat tedious), but then it broke, went from system to system without doing anything, asked for escort to [empty string], and gated out of existence.

Also, can we upgrade the Aquila's weaponry? It isn't really equipped to take on a Phobos right now.

There aren't really any equipment upgrades past what you start with - the power curve is effectively flat. I'm not sure how I'd solve this.

In the final mission, the friendly ships don't target the Ares shipyards. Might want to mount a single Ares Lightning Cannon on each of them as a workaround - the bug's been around for a while, so I don't see George fixing it soon.

I'll get around investigating the things I missed sometime - there's an impressive amount of content here.

'Mission failed' is displayed when the Heretic Sisters of Domina mission is successfully completed.

The 'escort CSC to different system' mission is broken - CSCs almost always just want to leave the system again.

If you let the Rogue fleet personnel board your ship, dock at the Rogue Fleet stronghold to let them off, and then dock at a Fleet base, they'll still be on the ship.

I think each playership should has a different launcher. I always use Sapphire, and I thought it's not match with Mag, I prefer at least a Rasiermesser missile with Gotha-10. Leave EI500 with Mag Launcher, as they has omni weapon and perfect as a bomber. For fast Wolfen, use Makayev with Black Strelka.

Ok, I will try that. I just realised, in all these years, I've never really used a Makayev launcher before...

Also, can we upgrade the Aquila's weaponry? It isn't really equipped to take on a Phobos right now.

Is this the player Aquila, or the NPC Aquila?

The Aquila's reactor can get damaged, and it won't ever turn back to normal. This might be on George's end.

Ok, I will try that. I just realised, in all these years, I've never really used a Makayev launcher before...

It's my go-to launcher for the midgame. What do you normally use in the Ungoverned Territories? The Orkan?

Black Strelkas probably aren't as good as Gotha-10s (for one thing, they do mediocre damage against small targets), but they're still good enough to put the hurt on endgame enemies. Most importantly, they're impressively flashy, which makes them rather a lot of fun to use.

Player Aquila. I was asking if I could find an APA(or some other weapon) and install it in one of the swivel mounts.

I once tried to get that working but wasn't successful. I quick play through with the Minotaur shows that only omnidirectional weapons can be mounted to swivel mounts with the weapon becoming 'linked-fire'. Non-omnidirectional weapons installed on the swivel slot remain as primary weapons. So...unless I make an omnidirectional version of all weapons, at the moment, I don't think it's possible.

It's my go-to launcher for the midgame. What do you normally use in the Ungoverned Territories? The Orkan?

Black Strelkas probably aren't as good as Gotha-10s (for one thing, they do mediocre damage against small targets), but they're still good enough to put the hurt on endgame enemies. Most importantly, they're impressively flashy, which makes them rather a lot of fun to use.

I just tried it, and it's actually pretty good. I think the last time I used a Makayev launcher was in version 1.01. I bought 50 green strelkas thinking I would be able to destroy everything....

Now I mainly use MAG launcher or just NAMI launcher in the Ungoverned Territories.

APA can be put on a swivel. I have not tried it in your mod, but I have installed APAs on a modified test Aquila adapted for upcoming Playership Drones v8, which uses DeviceSlots like the Minotaur (but with different criteria). DeviceSlots with linked-fire can have criteria that filters acceptable weapons.

As for launchers, I use NAMI missile launcher all the way up to Jiang's Star, due to 1) enemies dropping ammo and 2) NAMI being the only tracking option (if I do not include Corporate Command or mods). Once I reach Outer Realm, I look for Rasiermesser or NAMI heavy launcher.

APA can be put on a swivel. I have not tried it in your mod, but I have installed APAs on a modified test Aquila adapted for upcoming Playership Drones v8, which uses DeviceSlots like the Minotaur (but with different criteria). DeviceSlots with linked-fire can have criteria that filters acceptable weapons.